Conduit bender



July 7, 1959 pAULlNG 2,893,461

CONDUI'I BENDER Filed June 4, i956 IN V EN TOR.

1 Mal-fin H BY 17770 NEY United States atcnt O CONDUIT BENDER Martin .F.Pauling, Sioux Falls, S. Dak. Application June 4,1956, Serial No.589,313

1 Claim. (Cl. 15348) My invention relates to a conduit bender.

An object of my invention is to provide a conduit or pipe bender whichwill conveniently and readily provide an offset in a conduit or pipe,and will additionally provide means whereby the amount of the off-setcan be adjusted to the extent desired.

A further object of my invention is to provide an arrangement of thistype which is readily and easily operated, and is of relatively simpleconstruction.

With these and other objects in view, my invention consists in theconstruction, arrangement, and combination of the various parts of mydevice, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, as hereinaftermore fully set forth, pointed out in my claim, and illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a plan view of the conduit bender,

Figure 2 is a side elevation of Figure 1,

Figure 3 is an end view of Figure 2 taken along the lines of 33 thereof,and

Figure 4 is a view of a pipe or conduit after being bent with the deviceof my invention.

Many times in electrical or other similar work it is necessary toprovide an off-set portion from the main portion of the pipe in order toprovide entry into junction boxes, et cetera, and in many cases theoff-set must be regulated according to circumstances. My inventioncontemplates the provision of a device which will provide this off-setand which will also maintain the off-set portion in perfect alignmentwith the principal portion of the pipe and which device will not requirebending and rebending of the pipe, but will allow the pipe to beproperly off-set in one operation.

In describing my invention I have used the character to designate avertically positioned plate which is bolted at 11 to suitable spacers 12and which bolts 11 are secured to a further vertical plate 13, the plate10 having the cutout portion at 14.

Suitably pivoted by means of a rod 15 between the plates 10 and 13 is asubstantially lengthened lever or bar 16 which can be made of circularpipe if desired. Attached to the lower end of this bar is a projectingmember 17 which is adapted to hear at 18 against a retaining member 19which member 19 is substantially channel.

shaped and includes the pipe abutting portion 20, the member 19 beingsuitably pivoted at 21.

Attached at 22 to the member 19 is a spring 23 which is secured at 24 toa further lever or bar 25 to which is welded at 26 the arm 27, the bar25 being pivoted at 25a.

Received through the arm 27 is a pin 28 which is secured to rod 29 whichis attached to a further pin 30, which pin passes through asubstantially wedge shaped member 31. The character 32 designates alengthened platform upon which the conduit is adapted to rest, one edgeof this platform being welded to the vertical wall 13, the other edgeextending into the further vertical portion 33 which rests upon the base34 which is suitably braced at 35. Suitable pins 34a and 35a passthrough the links 36 and 37, there being a link 36 at either side of the2,893,461 Patented July 7, 1959 arrangement as well as the link 37, thelinks 36 being pivoted to the wedge shape member 31 by means of the pin38, and with the links 37 being pivoted to the wedge shape member 31 bymeans .of the pin 39. The character 40 designates a stop member to limitdownward movement of the wedge shape member.

Pivoted to the wedge shaped member 31 at 41 is a keeper 42having theslightly downwardly bent portion 43, and attached at 44 to both sides ofthe wedge shape member 31 is a spring 45 which serves to maintain thekeeper 42 in vertical position.

The character 46 indicates a lengthened strap having the slotted portion47 which freely receives the pin 15, the strap 46 terminating in thesubstantially horizontally portion 48 which is bentd ownwardly at 49,the portion 48 including a small ear or lug 50 attached thereto whichlug is adapted to be received in any of the notches 51 which areprovided in the plates 10 and 13, it being specifically understood thatthese notches can be at any desired spacing such as /8" apart or more,or whatever is desired.

The device is used in the following manner. First the pipe which isshown by the dotted lines character 52 is placed upon the platform 32and the keeper 42 is moved slightly against the spring so that theforward end of the pipe will lie beneath the portion 43. Next the lever16 which is normally in a lower position will be swung upwardly in thedirection of the arrow 53 to the position shown whereby the portion 17will bear against the channel member 19 and the pipe will thus berigidly held at this point. The member 46 has been previously adjustedwith the lug 50 being placed in whichever notch 51 is de sired, thesenotches determining the extent fo the off-set or bend, since the portion48 will limit movement of the bar 25 upwardly, and these notches can bemarked in fractions of an inch or in any way desired. The bar 25 is thenswung in the direction of the arrow 54, pulling the member 31 upwardly,and due to the firm retention of the forward end of the pipe by thekeeper 42, the pipe will be bent as shown in Figure 4, and it will beespecially noted that the pairs of links 36 and 37 provide aparallelogram effect at each side of the arrangement so that the keeper42 and the portion 43 is thereby maintained in a perfectly horizontallyposition at all times, so that as a result, the portion 55 of the pipewill be parallel to the portion 52. The pipe also rests within a channelshaped portion 56 which is provided in the wedge shape member 31, thischannel thereby preventing any lateral distortion so that as a resultthe pipe is properly bent to the exact extent of bend desired andwithout distortion.

.The position that the forward end of the pipe will occupy can also bedetermined with respect to the keeper 42. After use the spring 23 willretract or pull the channel 19 upwardly ready for the next operation.

I also provide extra openings at 56a at either side of the arrangementif it is desired to make sharper bends in which case the pins 34a and35a are placed in these openings. It will now be noted that I haveprovided the various advantages mentioned in the objects of my inventionwith other advantages being apparent.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of theparts of my invention without departing from the real spirit and purposeof my invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claim anymodified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which maybe reasonably included within their scope.

I claim as my invention:

A conduit bender comprising a framework including a horizontallypositioned platform, said platform being adapted to receive a conduitthereon, means for firmly retaining said conduit on said platform, amovable member spaced from said framework including a channel portionfor receiving an end of said conduit, a lever fulcrumed to saidframework and secured to said movable member for raising the same tobend said conduit, a retaining member secured to said movable member forholding the end -of said conduit, two pairs of opposed vertically spacedlinks pivotally secured to said framework and said movable member tomaintain said retaining member and the end of said conduit in constanthorizontal position during raising movement of said movable member,means for adjusting the extent of bending of said conduit including 10notches in the upper end of said framework adjacent to said lever, anadjustable limiting member including a lug received in any of saidnotches, said means for retaining said conduit on said platformincluding a further lever References Cited in the file of this patentUNITED STATES PATENTS Brown Aug. 22, 1911 St. Clair May 23, 1944

